Highly diastereo- and enantioselective silver-catalyzed double [3+2] cyclization of α-imino esters with isocyanoacetate.

Presented herein is a new complexity-generating method in which both functionalities of α-imino esters undergo stereoselective cyclization with isocyanoacetates to produce directly linked oxazole-imidazolines, which can be transformed into highly functionalized α,β-diamino esters and imidazolinium salts in high diastereo- and enantiopurity.